Hilton Als speaks with Maggie Nelson, “the poet who writes prose; the memoirist who considers the truth specious; the essayist whose books amount to a kind of fairy tale.” | The New Yorker

“Figured it’d been a while, so he’d fill in/for the other old crusty white croutons/who ran out of nice flowers to muse on.” Franny Choi, Ali Eteraz, and other writers respond to Calvin Trillin’s “doggerel.” | AAWW

Why is Karl Ove Knausgaard so damn sad? On Book Five of My Struggle. | The New Republic

Satyricon remixed: The introduction and an excerpt from Blutch’s graphic novel Peplum, which is being published in English for the first time. | The Paris Review

“We’re two writers in our forties with debut poetry books. At the risk of sounding snarky, but with a wink and a nudge, I’ll ask, ‘What took you so long?’” Michael Morse and Robin Beth Schaer in conversation. | The Rumpus

“I am a living demonstration that what I wrote is true.” An interview with official Living Legend Mario Vargas Llosa. | The New York Times

Celebrating the possibilities of facticity and the poeticization of form: On the writing of Maggie Nelson, Ben Lerner, and Brian Blanchfield and the revenge of poetry. | Flavorwire

On Dorothy Parker’s “wit, flair, talent, and near genius for self-destruction.” | NYRB

“I crept back and forth on all fours across the overpass of Styx.” Ken Chen on visiting his father in the underworld. | Harriet

“I met an oil man in Marfa and we talked about this a little bit, and he explained it was the family business. That’s all. Owning the earth, I guess.” Stephanie La Cava talks to Flavin Judd and Eileen Myles about the West Texas Trans-Pecos pipeline. | The Believer Logger